BOXING: Sweet sixteen for birthday boy Ben (From Oxford Mail)

BOXING: Sweet sixteen for birthday boy Ben

Bicester's Ben Kaluza celebrated his 16th birthday in style when he claimed the scalp of Welsh International Perrie Lima at the Park Inn Hotel, Bedford Kaluza, from the Oxford Boxing Academy, who was desperate to add another fight to his record before the Christmas holidays, accepted the fight with only 24-hours notice.

Ben Kaluza (left) lands a powerful punch in the face of Perrie Lima

As the opening bell sounded, Kaluza ran to the other side of the ring and threw a big right, which caught his opponent from the Prince of Wales Club in Cardiff on the chin and rocked him.

With his guard high, Kaluza kept moving forward throwing power shots, all of which caught the very durable Lima.

The referee Nigel Hall, seeing Lima in trouble gave him a standing count at end of the second round.

Kaluza continued in the same vein in round three, his punches hurting Lima, who was forced to take another standing count of eight.

In the fourth round, Lima knowing that he was no match for Kaluza’s superior power, resorted to holding, and picked up a public warning from the referee.

The bout ended with a unanimous verdict from the judges and a standing ovation from the crowd.

“Ordinarily, I ask for a minimum of one-week’s notice to do my research and set up a strategy to get my boxers ready to meet a top class opponent,” said Faz Keyani, head coach of the academy.

“However, Ben doesn’t like to know who he is boxing and just wants to get in the ring and demonstrate his power and skills.

“The day after the fight, I received a text message from Carl Hazlewood, the organiser of this International event which said ‘Ben is a credit to boxing – I have got him lined up to fight against Mike Tyson next!’